Snapchat planning $25 bn IPO

New York: Snap Inc -- the parent company of popular photo-sharing messaging service Snapchat -- is considering an initial public offering (IPO) that can value the company at $25 billion or more, media reported on Friday.

According to Wall Street Journal, Snap Inc is looking to sell shares as early as late March 2017.

The IPO would be the largest by any technology company after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group that went public in 2014 and raised $21.8 billion for the company and investors.

Snap Inc`s worth reached nearly $18 billion in May.

"Last month (September), Snapchat rolled out three new targeting options, such as a feature where marketers can take their existing list of email addresses and anonymously match that with Snapchat`s own data. Marketers can also push ads to people who watch certain types of videos, like sports," WSJ reported.

Snapchat is also reportedly set to enter the augmented reality (AR) field.

It has joined the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) which maintains the Bluetooth wireless standard. Joining this group is a necessary prerequisite for firms that want to employ Bluetooth in any hardware devices.

According to Financial Times, the Snapchat move to switch from software to hardware fuels speculation that it is working on AR wearable devices (like Google Glass).

Snapchat has also acquired start-up Vergence Labs that was developing a headset similar to Google Glass.

Snapchat currently has 150 million daily active users.